Does Obama plan to spy on social-networking sites?

posted at 9:30 am on September 2, 2009 by Ed Morrissey

Today’s rumor of presidential overreach starts at the National Legal and Policy Center and the Drudge Report, which has launched a slew of e-mails about official spying on social-networking sites. The NLPC found an RFP from FedBizOpps, the site that publishes all opportunities to do business with the federal government, that offers a contract for a company to collate data from the Internet. Is Big Brother upon us?

NLPC has uncovered a plan by the White House New Media operation to hire a technology vendor to conduct a massive, secret effort to harvest personal information on millions of Americans from social networking websites.

The information to be captured includes comments, tag lines, emails, audio, and video. The targeted sites include Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr and others – any space where the White House “maintains a presence.”

While the solicitation specifies a 12-month contract, it allows for seven one-year extensions. It specifies no dollar cap.

I’m not sure that highlighting a public contract offer amounts to “uncovering” a conspiracy, especially since their analysis turns out to be faulty. Contrary to NLPC’s take, the contractor would be collecting data required to be kept by the White House — by law. The RFP’s language is a bit dry but perfectly clear:

1. Purpose

The purpose of this Statement of Objectives (SOO) is to obtain the necessary services to ensure that content published by the Executive Office of the President (EOP) on publicly-accessible web sites is archived in accordance with the Presidential Records Act (PRA), that information posted on publicly-accessible web sites where the EOP maintains a presence is archived in accordance with the PRA, and that all archived information is securely stored and provided to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for historical preservation, in accordance with the PRA.

2. Scope

The contractor shall provide the necessary services to capture, store, extract to approved formats, and transfer content published by EOP on publicly-accessible web sites, along with information posted by non-EOP persons on publicly-accessible web sites where the EOP offices under PRA maintains a presence, throughout the term of the contract. The contractor shall if possible, capture, store, extract to approved formats, and transfer content published by EOP on non-public websites. The contractor shall include in the information posted by non-EOP persons on publicly-accessible web sites where the EOP maintains a presence both comments posted on pages created by EOP and messages sent to EOP accounts on those web sites. Publicly-accessible sites may include, but are not limited to social networking sites. The contractor shall provide a user-friendly way of organizing and searching captured information. The contractor shall properly transfer the captured information, as identified by EOP, to NARA in an acceptable format for both preservation in NARA’s Electronic Records Archive and presentation at the future Presidential Library. The Contractor shall provide a method to separate content posted by other EOP component offices as required.

The Presidential Records Act (PRA) essentially requires each administration to keep every pixel and keystroke ever published for later review by Congress or investigators, in case illegal activity takes place. We have seen this invoked ex post facto to the Clinton and Bush administrations, in the latter over e-mails sent and received outside the White House mail system. At that time, legal experts and investigators insisted that everything produced by an administration for anything remotely concerning official business had to be archived within the EOP.

A more careful reading of this RFP shows that to be the project. The contract directs the contractor to archive the “information posted on publicly-accessible web sites where the EOP maintains a presence“, including social networking sites like MySpace, Twitter, and so on. It doesn’t call for everything on those networks to be archived, but only “information posted by non-EOP persons on publicly-accessible web sites where the EOP maintains a presence[,] both comments posted on pages created by EOP and messages sent to EOP accounts on those web sites.” In other words, the archiving will include interaction on EOP websites and pages, but not anything else.

The reason this has seven potential one-year follow-ons is because the administration has to do this constantly through its term in office. They may only need three follow-ons, if we’re lucky. The White House has presumably set this up as a yearly contract to ensure good performance, ie, to keep the contractor’s feet to the fire. The EOP has to comply with the PRA at all times, regardless of the money involved. I’m a little surprised they’re going with a fixed-price bid rather than cost-plus, as I’m not sure anyone will have a good handle on how much this will all cost.

Which brings us to the common-sense check on the rumor. How much time and resources would it take to effectively monitor every entry on Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, and every blog in the blogosphere? And to do that secretly, while archiving all of it? The NSA would have to take that on full time, and even then … best of luck just keeping up with the archiving, let alone surveillance.

If the PRA really requires all of the effort this RFP details, maybe it’s time to revisit it. But this is nothing more than a big, pointless archiving project, one which may stimulate the economy of a handful of people, but otherwise inconsequential. There are a lot of good reasons to be worried about the Obama administration, but this doesn’t appear to be one of them.

Update: Yid with Lid was concerned about paragraph 12.1, Restriction against Disclosure, which he thought meant that the entire program was secret:

12.1 Restriction Against Disclosure

12.1.2 The Contractor agrees, in the performance of this task order, to keep the information disclosed to the Contractor, or information contained in the source documents furnished by the EOP or otherwise obtained in the course of its employment in the strictest confidence, said information being the sole property of the EOP. The Contractor also agrees not to publish, reproduce or otherwise divulge such information, in whole or in part, in any manner or form, nor authorize or permit others to do so, taking reasonable measures as are necessary to restrict access to the information, while in his or her possession, to those employees who must have the information to perform the work provided herein on a ―need-to-know‖ basis, and agrees to immediately notify the Contracting Officer in writing in the event the Contractor determines, or has reason to suspect, a breach of this requirement. The Contractor is responsible for ensuring all employees involved in the performance of this task order sign a ―Non-Disclosure Agreement‖ (See Attachment 1). The Contractor shall provide an original copy of each signed statement to the Contracting Officer prior to each employee beginning work.

Having been involved in government contracting in the past, I recognize this as standard boilerplate. Note that the paragraph doesn’t say that the entire program will be kept secret; it says that the contractor is not free to disseminate information provided to it by the EOP in the course of the program. Nothing in this document even suggests that the program will have a security classification. You’ll see language like this in every government contract, and many if not most private contracts as well.

Stop the ACLU may have a point about ACLU hypocrisy, but considering how badly this got overblown, I’m not sure it sticks.

Holder and the DOJ have already tripled the number of lawyers in the civil rights division. Part of the goal, according to the DOJ, is to make sure the 2010 census is used in redistricting. With groups like ACORN having their filthy hands on data collection I’m sure the DOJ will take every opportunity to buttress the City States against us flyover Neanderthals.

Yes, we are talking about now. And as Ed has to thoroughly pointed out, the claim that Obama is now secretly collecting data on American citizens is total B.S.

Ed posted what the contract was for, but apparently, you didn’t read it, so I’ll post it again:

The purpose of this Statement of Objectives (SOO) is to obtain the necessary services to ensure that content published by the Executive Office of the President (EOP) on publicly-accessible web sites is archived in accordance with the Presidential Records Act (PRA), that information posted on publicly-accessible web sites where the EOP maintains a presence is archived in accordance with the PRA, and that all archived information is securely stored and provided to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for historical preservation, in accordance with the PRA.

I emphasized the key part. This is to archive information that the Office of the President publishes on sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc… NOT what other people are publishing on there.

This is to archive information that the Office of the President publishes on sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc… NOT what other people are publishing on there.

Tom_Shipley

Nope. The RFQ explicitly states:

9. The Presidential Records Act does not require the storage or archiving of non-EOP content, as such is there a specific reason as to why the content provided on EOP related websites in the form of comments is included in these archiving procedures?

Answer: The PRA includes in its definition of presidential records content ―received‖ by PRA components and personnel. Out of an abundance of caution, we are treating comments made by non-PRA personnel on sites on which a PRA component has a presence as presidential records, requiring them to be captured or sampled.

10. Has NARA’s Electronic Records Archive expressed an interest in public content contributed to EOP websites?
Answer: See the answer to question #9.

Not only on this site but many have the left getting emotional and the masses standing up. An example regarding this particular issue can be further witnessed at http://www.docstoc.com

Here is 1 of many ( more than here )
BOYCOTTRated 8 out of 10

September 01, 2009 (14 hours 28 minutes ago)
I just contacted my daughter’s school board and they are having a fit!!!!!!! My daughter will miss this day. EVERYONE MUST KEEP THERI CHILDREN FROM HOME THIS DAY THAT DISAGREES! The only way to affect change unfortunately is through money now days and if the schools lose money they will ethink a mandatory broadcast of indoctrination. There will be strength in numbers and we must show our liberal schools and teachers that we will not stand for indoctrination.

They will either provide a place where my children will not be subjected to his address, or I will take them to the zoo on Tuesday.

TXMomof3 on September 2, 2009 at 10:42 AM

If the school is unwilling or unable to provide me with any details about this, but admits that it will happen, I will do the same as you and request that they provide an opp. to opt-out. Otherwise, I will keep them out too.

Frankly, I know what to expect from Obama. I’m more curious to find out if the school is trying to w/hold info from me, or in any other way hide this from parents. I also want to see if they give me any “attitude.” This should give me some good info into exactly how liberal they really are. Since I’m in a reliably liberal area, I don’t doubt they’ll be willing to tell me to piss-off. Somehow I don’t think they’ve received very many calls like mine. Most of the people around here would be quite happy to pick-up Obama’s smelly socks.

Sorry, my friends are hard-Left types-almost communists, some of them. Not worth the effort.

Del Dolemonte on September 2, 2009 at 11:05 AM

Then, why the hell are they still your “friends”? These are the people taking an active part in the destruction of American freedom. They are my enemies, and yours too. Covertly, or overtly, they seek the end of our constitutional republic, and want to replace it with the Obamanation you’re seeing now. Silence=complicity. If I can influence even one of these liberals, nutjobs or not, to turn away from their support of this cabal, then all the “friends” I’ve lost is worth it, in spades.

If the school is unwilling or unable to provide me with any details about this, but admits that it will happen, I will do the same as you and request that they provide an opp. to opt-out. Otherwise, I will keep them out too.

JiangxiDad on September 2, 2009 at 11:15 AM

I’m keeping my kids out, and I’m not telling them why until AFTER the 8th.

Part of the goal, according to the DOJ, is to make sure the 2010 census is used in redistricting. With groups like ACORN having their filthy hands on data collection I’m sure the DOJ will take every opportunity to buttress the City States against us flyover Neanderthals.

For my 2 centavos – ANYONE foolish enough to tell the next census takers ANYTHING beyond how many warm bodies are in your homes…………we have some beachfront property in Nebraska you’ll just love! Right on the beach!

So you admit that there is no evidence that the white house is harvesting personal info off people’s Facebook pages. You just think so because some web site made this BS claim up this morning? Is that right?

(E) Capture all created content at regular intervals daily, ensuring the retention of any deltas introduced between captures per day(it is preferable, but not necessary, for vendor to capture content that was added to a site and subsequently removed in the interval between captures).

RFQ NUMBER: WHO-S-09-0003 PAGE 3

Had second thoughts about a comment you made, so you deleted it? Sorry, but you’re still headed for the re-education camp.

In other words, the archiving will include interaction on EOP websites and pages, but not anything else.

Ed: I think this is the basic problem. Who defines EOP content? In other words, every comment related to the EOP post may be saved from any social networking website? The RFP as currently written is very broad.

This contract award should be watched very carefully and someone should request a copy of the final award documents via FOIA including Q&A and SOWs.

Mr. Morrissey has been exceedingly patient with this particular Captain of Constipated Conflict. It seems as if his whole life is centered around waiting for Ed to misstep, and then loudly proclaim to the world his supposed superiority. Go figger.

Mr. Morrissey has been exceedingly patient with this particular Captain of Constipated Conflict. It seems as if his whole life is centered around waiting for Ed to misstep, and then loudly proclaim to the world his supposed superiority. Go figger.

I am not impressed.

hillbillyjim on September 2, 2009 at 12:06 PM

That’s because Tom is a real misguided person, and not a free-lance or paid Axeltroll. Think of it as a religious duty to help the afflicted. (And if I remember correctly, Tom is Canadian, so much of this he can’t help.)

That’s because Tom is a real misguided person, and not a free-lance or paid Axeltroll. Think of it as a religious duty to help the afflicted. (And if I remember correctly, Tom is Canadian, so much of this he can’t help.)

I think you’d have to be pretty naive to think the government hasn’t been collecting information about its citizens (especially those of us on the “extreme right”) that it shouldn’t be collecting. I also think you’d have to be naive to not think this has been going on since well before Obama.

Fox News now reporting the obama school indoctrination program scheduled for sep. 8. It affects all public school students grades K or pre-K to 12. Pls. Try to stop this abomination, and keep your kids away if they go through with it. Put pressure on your schools to tell you what’s going on!

I’m sorry but the attempts to cover for Obama not having any ulterior motives with RFQ WHO-S-9-0003 do not wash.
Yes the answer to question 2 does list 7 social web sites with a ‘/whitehouse’ URL. But there is nothing in the RFQ that specifies that this project is specifically and permanently limited to these 7 ‘sites’. There are no restrictions that will prevent expansion to the root URL and all of its subsidiaries.

Currently, as examples, the RFQ lists only 7 sites. But couldn’t any web site or blog that allows comments be defined as a social network since it allows users to exchange ideas and data in a public/social environment?

Another scary part is seen in Question 4.

4. Is there an incumbent currently performing this work (even manually)?
Answer: There is no incumbent the Government staff does this manually.

I made this decision decades ago. As did they. We all agreed that I was never going to change their minds, and they agreed that they would never change my mind. We have plenty of other stuff to talk about other than politics.

OT: Question to Ed or Allah: I have frequently been unable to use the Preview button before posting today. Is there some bug in the system?

Well, last week I had HA, twitter and tumblr up in separate tabs and three times I was phished. I one time it was a red screen telling me it was a hostile site (hotair) the rest were telling me they needed to run virus scans. Pretty weird…enough for me to write MM/Ed/Allah about it. I don’t think this was isolated.

“(K) Provide a web-based tool for government employees to administer and manage this record keeping. (i.e. add new publicly accessible websites to the crawl or adjust the crawl frequency.) Provide a minimum of 10 simultaneous login accounts.”

If this were only about the limited scope some would suggest, then why is the above necessary?

So you admit that there is no evidence that the white house is harvesting personal info off people’s Facebook pages. You just think so because some web site made this BS claim up this morning? Is that right?

Tom_Shipley on September 2, 2009 at 11:29 AM

But GWB listening in on Al Qaeda’s telephone was sinister and Un-American.